ASCTD Embedded Application Development

Pivotal Rail set out to build a new automated single car test device (ASCTD) for the freight rail industry. Pivotal brought deep domain knowledge, established customer relationships, and a clear product vision; they understood the constraints railcar repair shops and freight operators work under, and what the equipment had to do. What the device needed to match that was a software foundation: a maintainable codebase that could carry field deployment, diagnostics, software updates, manufacturing workflows, and AAR certification.

OEG was first brought in for one piece of that, a browser-based operator interface, and delivered its share of the work by March 2024. The wider program then stalled. The ASCTD existed as capable hardware with a set of disconnected software components and no organization holding the full software stack together. Pivotal did not need another point vendor; they needed a single software partner that could take ownership across embedded control, Linux, release infrastructure, field diagnostics, and long-term support, and carry the device through certification into the field.

In April 2025, OEG took on the complete software load for the ASCTD. What had started as an operator-interface engagement became ownership of every layer of software that ships on the device.

The stack includes the embedded C control application that runs the device, a Linux kernel module, and a Yocto-based platform that OEG maintains as the device's operating system. On top of it runs the browser-based operator interface. Around it, OEG built the release and support infrastructure the product had been missing: an over-the-air (OTA) update service, signed release bundles so field units can be updated safely, an AWS-based CI/CD pipeline, manufacturing support images, field-support diagnostics, and the release documentation that supports AAR certification and ongoing compliance.

OEG carried the device through AAR certification in December 2025 and delivered the first production release in February 2026. OEG is now the sole software-development organization responsible for the software shipping on the ASCTD.